SC axe hangs on bill clipping CJ powers
Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Ban dial constituted an eight-judge bench to hear petitions filed against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, which curtailed the chief justice’s powers to initiate sue mote proceedings and create a chair .
Besides the judge himself, the senior bench consists of Justice Azul Ahsan, Justice Monee Akhtar, Justice Masher Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Masher, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Hasan Aznar Rizvi and Justice Shaheed Waleed.
The court will hear the petitions at 11:30 on Thursday [today].
Interestingly, none of the judges, who filed dissenting notes in recent cases, including Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Syed Mansour Ali Shah, Justice Yahiya Afraid and Justice Athar Minilab, were present in the court.
So far, three cases against the bill have been filed in the Supreme Court. Two of them were filed by citizens Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain and Raja Amir Khan through their lawyers, Advocate Tariq Rahim and Aznar Siddique.
In the petitions, the federation, the law ministry, the chief secretary to the prime minister and the chief secretary to the president, Dry Aric Alvin, were named as defendants.
The petitions say the proposed bill was based on “bad faith” and a “fraud” of the Constitution. They are asking the SC to strike down the bill as “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.
The court was also asked to stay the bill pending a decision on the petition and prevent the president from signing the bill.
The bill introduced by the government was sent to the president for approval on April 11. According to the law, President Alvin can keep the bill pending for 10 days, after which it will automatically become law.
The joint session of Parliament passed the bill with amendments days after the Speaker returned the bill amid protests by PTI senators. A petition challenging Section 4 of the proposed law was also filed in the Lahore High Court on Wednesday.
